Commentary By

Ken McIntyre, a 30-year veteran of national and local newspapers, serves as senior editor at The Daily Signal and The Heritage Foundation's Marilyn and Fred Guardabassi Fellow in Media and Public Policy Studies. Send an email to Ken.

Editor’s note: The renewed public debate over late-term abortion and efforts to legalize abortion up to the point of birth has put pro-choice advocates on the defensive, our mailbag indicates. Don’t forget to write us at [email protected]—Ken McIntyre

Dear Daily Signal: As a retired registered nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit who attended a thousand deliveries in her career, my response to Rachel del Guidice’s report is to say that many babies born alive (even those born at term) often need resuscitation (“Sasse Reintroduces Abortion Survivors Act”).

Resuscitation may mean anything from stimulation and brief oxygen treatment of some sort to full-blown CPR with medications. No NICU nurse or neonatologist I know would stand there and wait for a mother to make a decision as to whether the baby should be resuscitated.

The need to resuscitate is immediate and it would be against my conscience to allow a baby born alive to die, no matter what that mother wants.

Having said that, there are babies who are born with anomalies that “cannot be fixed” and who will eventually die regardless of any resuscitation effort. Those babies are kept “comfortable” (i.e. given hydration, nutrition, and warmth and assessed or treated for pain), but nonetheless it is extremely heartbreaking, not only for the family but for the caregivers.

Abortion is not the answer. Life is precious and is a gift from God. Abstinence and/or protection from pregnancy are the answers, and guess what? Abstinence is free and protection (birth control) is cheap. If all fails, adoption is the answer.

As an adoptive mother who could not have children of her own, I am ever so grateful to a woman who gave up a baby girl she did not want. That beautiful baby girl is now 39 years old and has two beautiful children of her own.

Now then, I will say that if a baby dies in utero, or if the life of the mother is at great risk, then yes, allow an abortion. Other than that, abortion at any stage of the baby’s development is morally wrong. But even more so when you have a baby lying on on a resuscitation table and you allow it to die.

That is murder, plain and simple. It’s no different than killing a child or an adult at any age.—Beverly Edwards, RN

Dear Daily Signal: Regarding Rachel del Guidice’s commentary, “The Culture of Death Is Never Satisfied”: I am white and will never be able to truly understand what it is like to be black, no more than a black person can understand what it is like to be white. That being said, I will never understand why blacks in America vote for Democrats.

The Democratic Party was the party that backed slavery; Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. Today, more black babies are aborted than any other race, and the Democrats are there cheering it on.

Democrats are there making sure there are no barriers to the abortionists’ entry into black neighborhoods and their extinguishing of black, yet-to-be-born babies. Do blacks never wonder why more Planned Parenthood clinics are in black neighborhoods than anywhere else?

Given that fact, do blacks never question Democrats’ fighting efforts to ensure women are safe during abortions, with trained doctors, clean clinics, and access to hospitals? Do blacks not deserve the same health care I get during knee surgery?

At every turn the Democrats are there to deprive those who can’t vote of their life and liberty—first slaves and now unborn children, children who mostly happen to be black. Hmm. I wonder if “choice” would be king if the millions of children killed in abortion could vote today, or if a more rational approach would rule?

In either case, I sit in wonderment as the black community supports the very party that perseveres contrary to their interests today, much like Hitler and Stalin, sending millions of babies to their death—black babies.—John Pipes

***

Virginia state Delegate Kathy Tran is a refugee from Vietnam, as Rachel del Guidice reports. Since she was too young to imbibe communist beliefs in her native land, she must have learned such vile ideas at a university in the U.S.

Imagine the irony: When I returned from a spell in Vietnam, “progressives” branded me as a “baby killer.” Now “progressives” are espousing baby killing.—William Westchester

***

Explain to me how a bit more dilation and a full-term delivery would impact the mental or physical health any more than killing the child in vivo two minutes earlier. The mother never needs to see the child.

But to wake up one morning and realize you consented to the butchering of an innocent, defenseless human would ravage both physical and mental health. And as I understand it, Tran’s bill did not specify birth defects. Virginia’s governor is copping out.—Donald Miller

***

Trust me, elective abortions will remain illegal for abortions done past the point of viability, around 20 to 24 weeks.

What this article is not telling you is that there are exceptions for fetuses with severe conditions incompatible with life, such as anencephaly. Such abortions should not be part of a blanket ban.—Edward Buatois

***

Maybe three questions need to be asked: Are you female? Would you feel it necessary to kill yourself because you are female?

And why would you feel it necessary to kill a female in the womb who would have the possibility to grow up to be a wonderful female like yourself? See Proverbs 24: 11-12.

Thanks to Rachel del Guidice for her outstanding reporting for The Daily Signal on pro-life topics.—Gary Valasek

This is the answer that plague many women when they reach a situation like this one described in Ginny Montalbano’s report.

Men and women have taken sex as a pleasure not assuming the responsibility of what it was designed for and to produce offspring. If there is no pleasure, people would not have sex.

Naturally, humans go against nature’s call and invented abortion. It they have sex, they should have responsibility that these thing would happen and not just toss it away like a piece of trash.

Adoption was invented for people who can’t provide for an extra mouth. Instead of trashing your fetus, give it up for adoption. Someone else would appreciate, and raise to be a person, that piece of flesh that you were ready to trash. That way your conscience, and God, would be at ease.—Antonio Urbizu

Dear Daily Signal: What Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam did or didn’t do for his medical school yearbook is much ado about nothing, is my reaction to Kay Coles James’ commentary (“Gov. Northam, Step Down and Let the Healing Begin”). It was a long time ago, when he was immature. I am tired of adults being held accountable today for childish behavior when they were young.

If Northam is exhibiting racist actions, why did Virginia elect
a racist as governor?

His support for infanticide is much more troubling. This should
be grounds for removal from office, not just asking him to resign. Yet we hear
almost nothing about that horrendous statement, and only about a picture in a
yearbook with no context.

How is Virginia leading if Northam decides to resign? If Virginians rise up and force him out of office, then I would credit them with leadership.—Henry Wollman

Northam has embraced
infanticide and displayed racist behavior by wearing black face years ago and
refusing in 2013 to accept the hand, offered in the spirit of equality and
competitiveness (something that we all learned as kids playing sports) of a
political opponent.

There are probably many other
anecdotes that Ms. James and others could offer that show Northam’s disregard
for human life and his alleged racism. He should resign.

However, is it not insightful that the Democratic left hasn’t forcefully called for Northam to resign?—William Downey

***

People change. It often doesn’t take too long for the changes. People are raised up hearing lies and believing them.

Where I grew up, there were virtually no black people. One black
family with 11 kids, and all of them were redheads and all of them wore the
name Chicken as a nickname. We loved them all.

When I went into the service, had some boys from the South
telling me stories about blacks. I didn’t believe them, and ended up with a
pair of black men in the bunks by mine. We marched together, did KP together,
did everything together, and their stories were like mine. I thought about the
boys who’d told me the lies, and shrugged my shoulders and did my duty.

I’ve met some black persons whom I didn’t like, but I’ve also met some whites I could care less for. A human is a human, no matter what color of skin, hair, eyes, or whatever.—Rex Whitmer,Elfrida, Ariz.

***

The
once great state of Virginia has fallen to an incredible level of vulgarity and
barbarism. If you were so stupid as to have voted in racist liberals and
Democrats the likes of Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam, you should be shamed
and ostracized.

These people support racist ideologies and the murder of babies. What are people in Virginia thinking? Before you vote, you should investigate the candidates and stop succumbing to peer pressure and liberal talking points. Think!—Steve Fowler

Let’s not forget New
York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state legislators there who passed a bill for
infanticide. Enacting such a bill is beyond the powers of a governor and lawmakers.
Curomo and the legislators should be indicted for authorizing premeditated
murder.

Yet they had the
audacity to cheer, high-five each other, have One World Trade Center and other
buildings lit up in pink. This is egregious and criminal. Animals don’t do this
to their young.—Andy
Ruby

Northam’s picture 30
years ago shouldn’t enter into the picture. I really don’t care what happened
back then. My question is, what’s he doing for the good of Virginia now?

The leftist loons need
to stop blowing things out of proportion. If he’s doing wrong, then get him
out. His radical stance on abortion at birth should be enough.—John Grychak

***

Democrats have
weaponized “abortion at all costs” to get votes by crying women’s
rights and ignoring that those rights at least stop in the third trimester. If
you can’t decide to have an abortion within six months, it is murder after that
whether or not you support Roe v. Wade.

Democrats care about
votes, not people. They cheer infanticide to raise votes, and condemn “blackface”
from 35 years ago to raise votes.

Democrats have
manufactured these issues, but common sense tells us there is nothing wrong
with an actor playing a quadriplegic or a person wearing blackface at a
Halloween party. We might not do that today, because it has been so hyped.

It is also not
disrespectful to wear an American Indian costume or to say “Injun,”
that spelling representing American English’s colloquial pronunciation of
Indian. The phrase “honest Injun” as an asseveration of truthfulness was first
recorded in 1868, from the notion of assurance extracted from Indians’ lack of
duplicity.

Only the race mongers try to turn everything
into a negative.

And finally, Northam won
the Virginia governor’s race by 230,000 votes because the outgoing Democrat
governor gave 206,000 felons the right to vote. He should be recalled by the
voters.—Randy
Harod

Dear Daily Signal: The problem with the left’s reasoning on transgenderism, the subject of Ryan T. Anderson’s commentary, is that most children, at one time or another, wish they were the opposite sex because they believe the other sex has more rights than their own (“The Left Is Shunning Liberals With Concerns About Transgender Agenda”).

Most children outgrow it and lead normal lives. And 2-year-olds don’t even know what sex is. This sex-change thing at that age is the wish of the parents, not the wish of the child. The parents wish they had a child of the other sex, so they say the child wants to be the other sex.

It is pure child abuse to have the sex of their child changed. The parents automatically render that poor child sterile. That child never will be able to have a child of his or her own. The parents also make it necessary for that child to be on medication the rest of his life.

Let the child at least grow up and make up his or her own mind. A child is incapable of making that decision. It is abuse, pure and simple, to allow a child to go through the surgery.—Estell Newton

***

It seems to me that the causes on the left have little to do with compassion and are more focused on human reproduction:

Abortion. Telling women it’s good for their health to kill their baby.

Gay rights. Love each other because we are secure in the knowledge that heterophobics won’t reproduce.

Transgender rights. Invade the schools, indoctrinate young and vulnerable developing children. And by all means, Johnny, if you want to be a girl we will be happy to arrange cutting off your penis.

Am I being too cynical, or am I on point?—J. Joseph Vassale

***

Young people always look for attention, for something that sets them apart. It can be through sports or academic excellence. It can also come from “being bad” and breaking the rules.

Since the left has made being trans the coolest thing going, I’m sure that young people are “going there” to say look, I stand out in my own way. The problem is that it is likely contrived and will lead to serious regrets.—Anthony Alafero

***

As an instructor in secondary schools for 18 years, I have had the opportunity to observe a multitude of teenagers. I would guess that the figure of 2 percent of high school students identifying as transgender, cited by Ryan Anderson, is well off the mark.

A better guess would be somewhere around three-tenths of a percent of students, with the other 1.7 percent utilizing it as an attention-getting mechanism.—Rockne Hughes

***

I see that forcing sexual promiscuity in the public schools and calling it sex ed is taking its toll on impressionable minds.—Bob Shoemaker

Dear Daily Signal: Good for you, ladies, for speaking up as Rachel del Guidice reports (“Why These Feminists Oppose Pelosi’s Equality Act”). These lawmakers definitely won’t listen to Republicans, conservatives or anyone who appears to lean even slightly right, so maybe they’ll listen to some fellow liberals.

Transgender people deserve love and respect, but not at the cost of female privacy, safety, identity, sports competitiveness, etc. And I couldn’t agree more with these women’s sentiments that stereotypes should hold less power.

A girl who likes “guy things” should be able to live happily in the body she was born with and like what she likes without either being told she’s a guy or that there’s something wrong with her not being girly. Same goes for guys who like “girl things.”

Stereotyping, not sex, is the social construct.—Sonnet Murray

***

It all comes down to genetics and a person’s chromosomes. If you are XX then you are female, If you are XY then you are male.

A person can think any way he or she wants, dress any way he or she wants, alter his or her body structure any way they want and act any way they want, and still be female or male.

Chromosome arrangement is not changeable at present.—Rockne Hughes

***

I know nothing about the feelings of a female wanting to be a male or a male wanting to be a female. However, after reading this along with other articles where some of those who underwent transformation apparently regretted it, I have the opinion that we need to let people be who they feel they are and not push science on them, for the sake of looking physically different.

When I grew up, one was indoctrinated as either male or a female from birth. Blue or pink. Pants or dress. Short or long hair. Trucks/guns or dolls. And so on.

I’ve learned a lot about letting people be who they are or feel they are. Now we’re pushing science and biology to the point we are pushing to change laws. What is with pronouns being criminalized? Really!

But to allow a politician from Rhode Island or California, or in my case New York, to make words illegal or screw up laws that were hard fought and took years (not days or months) to pass, is like passing the Affordable Care Act without reading it.—Robert Rogers

This should do away with absentee ballots as well, since you can vote wherever you happen to be if you are on a business trip and so on.—Tonya Acre Merrill

***

“Motor voter” laws may be the biggest problem. You go to DMV and they will, on their own, fill out a voter registration form for you and register you to vote.

They do this whether you are a citizen, green card holder, or an illegal alien getting a driver’s license. My stepdaughter, who at the time held a green card, had this happen. We found out when she was served with jury duty.—Jeff Pearson

***

Individual states are responsible for elections within their jurisdiction, including registered voters who are out of state.

A person who is not a U.S. citizen is not eligible to vote. Whenever this happens, the state should suffer a significant penalty and the individual who voted illegally should be prosecuted as a felon.—Jim Egbert

***

And this, my friends, is why the left won’t secure the border. It’s imperative that they replenish their base of voters before the next election. They are losing enough of their existing base that their future is being threatened,seriously threatened.

They will do anything and everything to ensure they regain power and maintain it permanently at all costs. Their ends justify their means.—Steven Crain

***

The Democratic Party relies on these inadequate voters rolls to steal elections and put ineligible people in office who will advance their anti-American agenda designed to overthrow our Constitution-based republic.

Keeping our voter rolls in order is vital to the longevity of our great country.—James Hay

Don’t have time to read the Washington Post or New York Times? Then get The Morning Bell, an early morning edition of the day’s most important political news, conservative commentary and original reporting from a team committed to following the truth no matter where it leads.

Email address

Ever feel like the only difference between the New York Times and Washington Post is the name? We do. Try the Morning Bell and get the day’s most important news and commentary from a team committed to the truth in formats that respect your time…and your intelligence.